My Shastina

PRESS RELEASE
For more information contact:
Bern Case, Airport Director
Kim Stearns, PIO
(541) 776-7222
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rogue Valley International-Medford First Oregon Airport to Host Zeppelin Visit
MEDFORD, OR – August 11, 2010 – The Rogue Valley International – Medford Airport
(MFR) will be the first touch-down spot in the State of Oregon for the Farmers Airship, Zeppelin which is on a five-city tour of the Pacific Northwest.

This will be the first visit from the Zepplin,Eureka, in the region. The Airship will be landing at the airport during the morning of August 14, 2010, and will remain for several days offering rides to passengers through August 17, 2010.
Owned and operated by Airship Ventures, individuals will have the extraordinary opportunity to book passage and sail over the Rogue River Valley, on the largest airship to touch down in Medford’s aviation history. “We believe this will be the largest aircraft per cubic foot to land at the airport,” stated Bern
Case, Airport Director. “We had to go out and mark off the perimeter just to make sure there would be enough room for the ship to fit!”

Tethered to a single mast, the Zeppelin will be a sight to behold. The aircraft will be moored at the end of runway nine (9) near Biddle Road. Medford Air Service will be the fixed base operator involved with the event. Would be passengers must book
tickets by calling 1-650-969-8100, ext. 111. Press rides will be available, but must be arranged in advance through that number.

The overall size of the aircraft is impressive at 246 feet in length. It bypasses a Boeing 747 by 50 feet. Not to be confused with a blimp, zeppelins (named after the inventor German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin), are rich in history, and were built using metal frames, enabling the airships to maneuver over longer distances. They were used strategically in the 1920′s as both transport craft and aerial scouts during World War 1.

This Zeppelin Airship serves a much friendlier purpose. Flown with the Farmers’ Insurance logo, the Zeppelin, Eureka, will be providing rides to passengers throughout its Pacific Northwest tour. Additional information can be found at www.airshipventures.com/tracking.

(This story was contributed by Jack Brooks of Lake Shastina)

INTERESTING STORY ABOUT WW II
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the authorities were casting-about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the locations of ‘safe houses’, where a POW on-the-loose could go for food and shelter. Paper maps had some real drawbacks: They make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear-out rapidly and if they get wet, they turn into mush.

Someone in MI-5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It’s durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as needed, and makes no noise what-so-ever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.
When approached by the government, the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the U.K. Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened, ‘games and pastimes’ was a category item qualified for insertion into ‘CARE packages’, dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war.
Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington’s, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were located (Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny dots that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.
As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington’s also managed to add:
1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together.
3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency, hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!
British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on their first mission, how to identify a ‘rigged’ Monopoly set by means of a tiny red dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the Free Parking square! Of the estimated 35,000 Allied POWS who successfully escaped, an
estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.
Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy Indefinitely, since the British Government might want to use this highly successful use in still another, future war.
The story wasn’t de-classified until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington’s, as well as the firm itself, were finally honoured in a public ceremony. Anyway, it’s always nice when you can play that ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/monopoly-game.htm

The date is 1946 and the man in the photo is Jens Hopen, father of Lt. Roy Hopen who was killed in the crash of his Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter near the Altoona Mine just across the county line in Trinity County. The date of the accident was Nov. 14, 1945 and our aircraft archaeology group has located and documented the site. The pilots remains were recovered the following year by the Navy and rest now in the Arlington National Cemetary.

But the father, Jens Hopen did not know this in June of 1946 and, overcome with grief, withdrew his entire life savings of $900 and drove across the country from New Jersey, leaving his wife at home, to try and find his son.

On June 12 he arrived in Weed and spent the next two days flying back and forth over the mountains looking for the wreck. On the 14th he hired two local guides and began a 30 day camp-out on Eddy Creek, searching China Mountain, Scott Mountain, Mount Eddy, Cory Peak, and others. He rented horses and at one point he made his own skiis to cross snow fields to range over the terrain eight hours every single day.

But in the end he failed. Money gone, he told his guides he simply could no longer pay to feed the horses or buy supplies for themselves and he returned home hollow-eyed with loss.

No local news stories have surfaced about this quiet desperate visit. No accounts have appeared anywhere that we can find so the question is did he leave a trail here? Has anyone heard about this man?

It is more relevant now because some Hopen relatives are planning to come to the Montague Airport on August 21 for the annual Aviation Day where our archaeology group will display artifacts from the Hellcat site. On hand will also be the brother of the B-24 co-pilot so this will be a family reunion of sorts.

Please call or write if you know of anyone who has information on this sad story that we can share with family members who are still looking for closure.

Bruce Batchelder 530-938-0385 bruce@realestatelakeshastina.com

PS: for a more readable copy of the clipping go to our website and click on Aviation, www.realestatelakeshastina.com.

As you can see have never done this and would probably never have thought of it but our daughters did and they bought this treat for us as our anniversary gift. That’s Ed Steele, owner of Shasta Valley Balloons (.com, to see his website) who has been doing this over 15 years and you will be amazed at his flying skill. We of course were at the whim of the wind at all times but the pilot controls altitude and if he’s good enough like Ed there are times when the basket can be just inches above the pasture grasses.

This is what the balloon looks like inside as it’s being inflated. More accurately a fan (in the distance to the right of the basket) is fluffing up the envelope so that when Ed fires up the propane heaters they won’t be anywhere near the nylon fabric. Sally took this shot from the air vent that the pilot opens when he wants to let out the hot air and descend.

This is Rohr Field from about 1,000 feet I think, directly after liftoff. You can see the flight activity in progress. Today was Young Eagle Day where the local chapeter of the Experimental Aircraft Association takes kids on rides. There were an awful lot of happy children down there when we landed who had never before been in the air.
And this is the top of a willow tree about 40 feet off the ground. From about 4 feet away…. Ed is so good we never touched it. Just after this we coasted across a pasture with the basket brushing the grass tops and never the ground. He’s that good.

Oh, and before I forget there is a champagne brunch following. Strawberries (that you dip in sour cream and then in brown sugar), crackers and brie cheese, quiche, and of course, the bubbly (with orange juice if you prefer mimosa). Coming full circle, Ed explained that ballooning began in France in 1783 when they simply started a fire in the basket and hoped the silk envelope didn’t catch on fire.

The problems however got worse when peasants in the countryside where the balloonists tried to land became hostile, thinking they were English invaders. Being creative, the balloonists knew that there was nothing more French than champagne and so they began dangling a bottle beneath the basket to assure the natives that they too were French.

Voila.

Don’t wait 50 years to do this folks, it’s something you’ll never forget.